缺乏维生素D会增加老年痴呆症风险（在线收听）

缺乏维生素D会增加老年痴呆症风险

Vitamin D comes from the sun and from some foods like nuts, lentils and fatty fish.

人们能够从太阳，或是像坚果、扁豆以及多脂鱼等食物中摄取维生素D。

Researchers have found that low levels of vitamin D could be related to dementia and Alzheimer's disease, one of the most common forms of dementia. Alzheimer's can be exhausting for caregivers and frightening to those who have it.

研究人员发现，老年痴呆和阿尔茨海默病都与维生素D摄入量不足有关，阿尔茨海默病也是老年痴呆中最为常见的一种形式。对于护理人员来说，阿尔茨海默病患者会让他们感到精疲力尽，而人们对患有此病的患者更是备感恐慌。

The worse thing that I found was I was getting lost in the car, not just forgetting where I was going, I wouldn't know where I was,

我发现最坏的事情是，我在车里迷了路，完全记不清我要去哪里，更不知道我身在何地。

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 47 million people suffer from dementia, with about 60 percent of them in low and middle income countries, countries with the least ability to cope.

据世界卫生组织预计，全球有超过4700万人身患老年痴呆，而有大约60%生活在中低收入国家中，这些国家无能力解决这一问题。

U.S. researchers studied older adults and measured both their vitamin D levels and their cognitive ability: that is, the ability to remember things and to process thoughts.

美国研究人员对老年人进行了研究，他们对研究对象的维生素D含量以及认知能力进行了测量，认知能力是指大脑存储信息，提取信息的能力。

Some of the subjects had outright dementia, some had mild cognitive impairment and some had what we would call normal cognitive functioning,

许多研究对象患有老年痴呆，有些患有中度认知障碍，有些人的认知能力正常。

The researchers found that about 60 percent of the group was low in vitamin D.

研究人员发现，有60%的老年人维生素D含量偏低。

Those who had dementia also had lower vitamin D status than those who had mild cognitive impairment or who had normal cognitive functioning,”

比起患有中度认知障碍以及没有任何认知能力问题的老年人，他们的维生素D含量要高于患老年痴呆的老人。

Those low in vitamin D showed more short-term memory loss, as well as less ability to organize thoughts, prioritize tasks and make decisions.

维生素D含量低表现为短期性记忆缺失，整理思绪，合理运用优先顺序完成多种任务，以及作出决策的能力不足。

They were declining about two-and-a-half times faster than those who had adequate vitamin D.

比起那些维生素D含量充足的研究对象来说，老年痴呆患者的能力下降速度要快2.5倍。

While this study shows that vitamin D seems to play a role in slowing the onset of dementia, more studies are needed to see if vitamin D supplements can help slow this decline.

这项研究证明在减缓患病速度上，维生素D似乎扮演了重要角色，补充维生素D是否能够真正减缓患病率还需要进行更多研究。

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

这是刊登在《美国医学会杂志》上的一项研究。